Revision as of 09:19, February 25, 2012

His Grace Eulogios (Kourilas) of Korca, Eulogios Kourilas Lauriotis of Korca, or Evlogji Kurila[1] was the bishop of Korca (Korytsa) of the Autocephalous Church of Albania from 1937 to 1939, and a professor of philosophy and author on religious matters.

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Life

In 1880, Eulogios was born in the Albanian village of Ziçisht (in Greek: Zititsa) in the then Ottoman empire. Attracted during his youth by ascetic and monastic ideals he joined the monastic community of Mount Athos. In 1901, he graduated from the Athonite School at Mt. Athos and then from the Phanar Greek Orthodox College in Constantinople before continuing his studies at the University of Athens, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Humanities. He, then, continued his education in Germany.

Eulogios also participated in the Greek struggle with the Bulgarians for Macedonia during the first decade of the twentieth centuryw: Macedonian_Struggle. During the Balkan Wars of 1912/1913, he was in charge of 100 armed men, among them many priests, that fought for Greece in the area of Chalkidiki, the peninsula in northern Greece that includes Mt. Athos. In 1912, Albania gained independence and recognition by the major powers of Europe.

On April 17,1937, the Church of Albania was recognized as autocephalous by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and, after an agreement with the Albanian government, selected a number of well educated religious personalities for key positions in the Church of Albania. Among them were Panteleimon Kotokos as Bishop of Gjirokastër and Eulogios Kourilas as Bishop of Korca (Corcia).[2]

After the Italian and German occupations forces were forced out of Albania at the end of World War II, a communist regime under Enver Hoxha came to power in 1945 and officially proclaimed Albania an atheist state on November 22, 1967. Bp. Eulogios was declared an "enemy of the state" and was deprived of his Albanian citizenship. [3] Bp. Eulogios, then, fled Albania and settled in Greece.

In Greece, he became a professor at School of Philosophy of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and of the University of Athens. He reposed in 1961 in Stratonike, Chalkidiki.

References

↑ His family name is cited either in its Greek form "Kourilas" or "Kurilas" or in its Albanian form "Kurila". His first name can be found spelled "Eulogios" or "Evlogios" in Greek, "Evlogji" in Albanian, or sometimes "Eulogio" in English.